Vue from the Great Hills

USA: The Great Hills Baptist Church has completed phase one of its planned multi-phase electroacoustic renovation. This has seen a Vue Audiotechnik al-Class hybrid line array system replace an old rig in the Austin-based church’s 3,500-seat main sanctuary.

The system was installed by Paragon 360, a systems integrator based in Springfield, Missouri, and reportedly chosen due to its ability to deliver consistent 180° coverage across the semicircle-shaped sanctuary. It also features the manufacturer’s Continual Source Topology (CST), which allows for the arraying of different sized elements.

Making use of CST, Paragon 360 lead audio designer Mark Coble specified four arrays, each formed from six al-8 and four al-4 cabinets for near-field coverage. Joining these at the top of each flown array are three al-8SB flyable 18-inch subwoofers in a cardioid directional configuration. Set up and tuning were reportedly simplified by VueDrive Systems Engines, which handle the phase and frequency settings for the cardioid configuration. Meanwhile, serving as monitors are six hm-112 h-class monitors driven by V4-i VueDrive Systems Engines.

‘When we first fired up the system, everyone was blown away by the seamless coverage – both vertically and horizontally,’ recalls Rich Nelms, associate audio designer and installer at Paragon 360. ‘From the last row to the first, the sound level varied by only 1.5dB. Even with the best-tuned and designed systems you expect to find shifts in frequency response as you pass horizontally between the seams in each array’s coverage. The Vue system was perfectly seamless horizontally throughout the entire sanctuary and required very little tuning to achieve optimum performance.’

Great Hills had also been suffering from stage and rear wall low-frequency interference with its old system. ‘The versatility of the Vue system allowed us to very easily go the cardioid route and solve this long-standing issue, while keeping the newly installed orchestra section clear of excess low-frequency energy,’ explains Mr Nelms. ‘This was one of those projects where the system performance was almost too good to be true. Thanks to Vue’s CST technology, the system exceeds all client expectations and has added a new level of experience and meaning to each service.’